Wedged shaped concrete barriers are commonly used during highway construction to separate the highway traffic from the construction workers and equipment. They are generally short sections so that the barriers may be portable. However, the weight of such concrete barriers dictates that heavy equipment or lifting machines, such as a fork lift, hydraulic crane or front end loader, is required to remove such barriers from flatbed trucks used to transport the barriers to the road surface for placement during use.
Devices have been proposed to be mounted onto lifting machines for lifting the concrete barriers. Such devices are generally difficult to use or require hydraulic drive means in order to actuate the device. Such devices are time consuming to install and require special skill in order to operate.
Still other devices have been proposed which alleviate the need for hydraulic hook-up to actuate. Such devices comprise caliper arms having a mechanical advantage in order to provide sufficient force to grip the concrete barriers prior to lifting. However, such apparatus generally do not stay open when not lifting a barrier due to the mechanical arrangement of the caliper arms. Such apparatus become cumbersome and dangerous to use as the device must be opened manually in order to be applied to the concrete barrier. Manual labour required to open the device increases the risk of injury to the labourer. The number of labourers required to install the concrete barriers also increases.